I raised and showed guinea pigs. I never had to cull a baby. If I have a sick pig, if was brought to the vet to be treated and sometimes, they needed to be euthanized. So, what is the process for mice.???

I use the freezer method for pinkies and pups up till their eyes open. They seem fall asleep and death comes quickly. This is how I was taught years ago by another breeder. It was a popular method at the time.

Older mice I stun and give to my snake. Please keep in mind that I do not normally cull an adult mouse. My snake gets store bought.

kawmice wrote: I use the freezer method for pinkies and pups up till their eyes open. They seem fall asleep and death comes quickly. This is how I was taught years ago by another breeder. It was a popular method at the time.

I was also taught by another breeder to use that method, but the first time i used it i waited about 15 minutes and took one out to see if my cat would eat it out of curiosity, and it was still alive after 15 minutes. I don't feel right putting them in there when I don't know how long it takes, and it definitely takes longer than the split second it takes to flick.

I know of a breeder who flushes pinkies down the toilet. . . that makes me really uncomfortable.

Someone on a forum once mentioned that they had prescription narcotic pain medication patches, and that a tiny smudge on a mouse's skin would kill them. I think that's probably a good way to die. They were probably very numb and blissful at their end.

I'd have to agree although if tey break the pain patch to get atthe meds it can be dsangerous to the person too. I wonder if there would be a way to get them to it without breaking the seal on the patch... I swing the adults and flick the bubs. The thing I learned from a fellow breeder is you can't hesitate. To hesitate defeats the purpose of humane culling because sometimes they can linger.

Do they feel pain when you stun,or don't stun them? I always just put them down, I didn't try to stun them first.

I'm sure they feel pain when I stun them, but the way I do it the amount of time between the flick to stun and the pull to dislocate is so short that I feel it's of no consequence. I can't ever get them to hold still long enough without stunning, to CD, so I worry I will cause them more pain by doing the procedure wrong, than I will if I stun them first.

I can't say I like the swing method. . . To me there is just too much room for possible error.

I bought a rat from the pet store as a feeder recently, and I asked the guy if I could go ahead and put it down before I left, so it wasn't chewing out in the car. Without really asking he said 'well I can do it' and he smacked the rat against the floor about 5 times. It made me sick, honestly. When we got in the car it was still very much alive, and clearly in a lot of pain, so I did CD and ended it. I feel very bad for that rat.

Rhasputin, do you know of any good instruction videos on how to do CV precisely? I know it's something that probably takes a lot of experience to get absolutely perfectly, but I would want to know EXACTLY how to do it before even attempting.

I use CO2 and then freeze or flush them just to be sure. They "pass out" from the CO2 and never know that death has come. It is sad to euthanise a favorite mouse this way, but it is a merciful way for them to go.

That's sort of a general thing. It's not a 100% thing. Generally when they urinate it's a good indication that they have completely gone slack, and everything has ceased it's normal involuntary functions. Like the bladder normally holds the urine in without the mouse thinking about it, but when it dies, the bladder no longer holds the urine in, and it is released.

Pinkies and fuzzies I use CD and then flush, aka the Squish and Flush method (Or Flick and Flush method if they are really little). Larger babies and adult mice I use my co2 chamber. I still can't do adult CD. I wish I could. Occasionally I've had my vet do it, but I don't like the needle to the heart while they are alive. I cry like a baby. Co2 is gentle and painless, and if you make your chamber a certain way, you can even hold them and keep them calm and they never feel alone.

Some have said that a co2 chamber freaks the animal out too much and they panic which makes it inhumane. My response to that is: You must be doing it wrong.

I would also like to see how to properly CD. If you do a demo let me know. I will just have to leave my friend out of the room! lol I tried once........ years ago. I was - ahem - unsucessful. I never tried it again. But i would like to learn how to properly do it.

As far as the flushing method - I have never even heard of that method until I read everyone's responses to this post. I do not think I could do that. Just a little fear of mine - drowning. I just can't......... lol

Yeah, I couldn't see flushing a live mouse, though I don't doubt that some people do it. I hate wasting a garbage bag on a single pinky though, which is usually how I cull- one or two at a time. I'm "not allowed" to freeze euthanized culls anymore. If I have a special mouse who had to be pts, I have to hide it well behind the frozen food until I can bury him/her. But the bag of pinkies that used to accumulate in the freezer is a no-no..... So now they all get flushed unless I have a bag of trash that happens to be ready to take out.

This doesn't work for everyone, but I usually feed my culls either to my opossum or my savanna monitor. If neither of them is hungry, I'll freeze them. If the mouse had something wrong with it like cancer or it was rotted before I found it, I'll throw it in the back yard, opossums and raccoons come by at night and eat them, they're never there in the morning.

Sure! I want to make a new one, so when I get a new tub and another set of gloves I'll make a "how to". It's really easy if you have a Dremel or equivalent, and fairly easy if you have to use a blade of some sort.

Casey, I've been pretty tempted to toss culls into the natural area in the back of our lot. Possums and even a skunk come visit on occasion BUT we have a crap-ton of neighbor cats who I'd like to... well... I shouldn't divulge what I'd like to do to those mangy flea bags! Anyway, I don't want them to get any "natural donations". I hate those cats!